North East RadioWatch: June 11, 1998

CBS Makes Its Move

Just minutes after NERW went to press last week, CBS finally
completed its $2.6 billion takeover of American Radio Systems, adding
ARS' clusters in Buffalo (WLCE, WBLK, WJYE, WYRK, WECK), Rochester
(WZNE, WCMF, WPXY, WRMM), Hartford (WTIC AM-FM, WZMX, WRCH) and
Boston's WBMX (98.5) to its existing Northeast presence in Boston
(WBZ, WZLX, WODS, WBCN, WBZ-TV) and New York City (WCBS AM-FM, WINS,
WNEW, WXRK, WFAN). To satisfy FCC ownership limits, Boston's WNFT is
in a trust awaiting sale; CBS is still required under a separate
agreement with the Justice Department to sell WRKO, WEEI, WAAF, and
WEGQ within six months. Despite persistent rumors of a Jacor Boston
buy, there's no oficial announcement of a buyer so far.

NERW notes that ARS' Rochester stations had the new "CBS" IDs on the
air as early as 6:00 last Thursday night.

In other MASSACHUSETTS news, congratulations to the folks over at
WBZ-TV (Channel 4), who celebrated their fiftieth anniversary on
Tuesday (albeit with very little fanfare). Two other New England
stations mark the big 5-0 this month -- WTNH (Channel 8) in New Haven
on June 16 and WHDH-TV (Channel 7) in Boston on the 23rd. WHDH-TV
hired a new news director this week, by the way. Mark Berryhill joins
the station from KDKA-TV (Channel 2) in Pittsburgh.

WBPS (890 Dedham) won't be Salem Media's newest property after all.
Salem subsidiary New England Continental Media asked the FCC this week
to dismiss its proposed purchase of the station.

News from the noncomms: WBIM (91.5 Bridgewater) and WSHL (91.3 Easton)
will both stay on the air 24 hours a day again this summer, relaying
the Talking Information Center's reading service for the blind. And
WRPS (88.3) at Rockland High School is also going 24 hours, running an
automated hot AC format when no students are around. WRPS is also now
in stereo for the first time.

Former WAAF (107.3 Worcester) afternoon jocks Opie & Anthony have
found a new home, two months after they were fired for their April
Fools' Day claim that the mayor of Boston was dead. Their new home,
according to published reports? CBS's WNEW (102.7) in New York, where
they'll do afternoon drive.

From the rumor mill: When Greater Media's WKLB-FM (96.9) and WMJX
(106.7) vacate their current home in Boston's Salada Tea Building (330
Stuart St.), will new CBS property WBMX (98.5) be moving in?

The digital TV bandwagon rolls on, with Worcester's WUNI (Channel 27)
the latest to apply for a DTV CP. WUNI-DT will be on Channel 29.

And we're thrilled to report that one of Boston's finest broadcast
journalists is now available on the Web, thanks to the Boston
Herald. You can find Dean Johnson's columns at
www.bostonherald.com.

In NEW YORK, Buffalo's public radio listeners are hearing WBFO (88.7)
a little more clearly, now that the station has boosted power from 20
kilowatts to a full 50.

Less than a year after fire destroyed his radio station, WVIP (Mount
Kisco) founder Martin Stone has died. Stone was hospitalized after
watching AM 1310 burn to the ground last fall. He was 83 years old.
The WVIP license remains active, but there's no sign that the station
will return to the air.

Buffalo sports legend Van Miller did his last regular sportscast for
WIVB (Channel 4) Friday night. Miller was with Channel 4 for an
amazing 43 years; he stays on as the voice of the Buffalo Bills.

PD Clarke Ingram will stay with Rochester's hit radio station for a few
more years. After months of rumors involving a move to the City of
Brotherly Love, Ingram re-upped with WPXY (97.9) just days after CBS
closed on the station. His new contract runs through 2001.

Digital television is prompting a slew of channel changes among
upstate New York's low-power TVs. This week's moves include: WNGN-LP
Troy, from channel 26 to 47; W04DA Schenectady to channel 42; and
WBGH-LP Binghamton from channel 8 to channel 20.

Speaking of Binghamton, NERW tried to check out the damage at WIVT
(Channel 34), the ABC affiliate knocked off the air by a tornado, but
we made it only about halfway up the driveway before being stopped by
a man in a pickup truck with a German shepherd, who informed us that
it would be best if we left the property...immediately. This much we
know for sure: the WIVT tower no longer stands, and much of the side
of the building is gone as well, covered by a blue tarp. WIVT's spot
on the Binghamton cable system is being filled by a raw ABC network
feed with a WIVT still ID inserted every once in a while.

NERW also listened to the new WBBI (107.5 Endwell), Majac's country
challenger to Binghamton market dominator WHWK (98.1). We saw the new
downtown studio facility of WHWK and sister stations WNBF (1290), WKOP
(1360), and WAAL (99.1). And we were mesmerized by the modern rock
sounds of WEBO (1330 Owego), as "The Web" cranked out the tunes on AM. Most
unusual, indeed.

More tornado news: We're told the May 31 tornado took out Ogdensburg
stations WSLB (1400), WPAC (92.7), and WNCQ (102.9 Morristown) for a
while. All are back on the air now.

And from the legal-ID front: NERW's been hearing top-hour IDs again
now that the automation is fixed at WBBF (950) in Rochester, and we
owe it to the Entercom folks to note that the future WEZO(AM) was
still running legal IDs last week -- in the weather forecast after the
network news.

Is it official now? We guess so...since
Broadcasting&Cable is reporting that Cumulus Media is
buying WKNE AM/FM (1290/103.7) in Keene, NEW HAMPSHIRE from Richard
Lightfoot for $6 million. NERW wonders what Cumulus' next move in the
Granite State might be, since we've seen how the company likes to
build clusters in each of its markets.

The Bargain Bin is back on Nashua's WSMN (1590) -- but it's moved from
the 6PM timeslot to 2 o'clock each afternoon.

We hear that Brian Dodge's translators are back on the air with WJIV
programming in the Connecticut River Valley. We're also told that one
of the Dodge transmitters, W232AJ on Pack Monadnock, stayed on the air
rebroadcasting the sounds of intermodulation between WKNE-FM and WEQX
(102.7 Manchester VT) in crystal-clear stereo.

More on Dodge this week, from VERMONT: Last summer's petitions to
deny against Dodge's translator licenses have claimed their first
victim. The FCC this week rescinded its renewal of Dodge's W261CB
(100.1) in Norwich, based on an August 24, 1997 petition to deny.
More on this one next week...

Another displaced LPTV is seeking a new home; W14CK in Newport wants
to move to channel 14.

Still more relocating LPTVs in CONNECTICUT: Hartford's W05CT wants to
move to channel 16, with WHTX-LP moving from channel 10 to 28.

Jerry Kristafer of New Haven's WELI (960) will get some TV exposure
Friday morning (June 12), as Fox News Channel simulcasts a few minutes
of his show starting at 8:40 AM.

In RHODE ISLAND, M Street reports WXEX (99.7
Wakefield-Peace Dale) moving from modern rock to rock. The playlist
at www.wxex.com still looks awfully modern to us, though. We're also
pleased to note that the web folks at 99.7 have significantly toned
down their use of that eye-straining chartreuse color. (And for a
station that's not supposed to be using its old "Edge" nickname
anymore, we noted quite a few pages on the site that still use the
name...and at least one that hasn't been updated since, oh, February
or thereabouts...)

No news from MAINE this week...but we're sure to have something to
report in just over a week, as your NERW editorial team embarks on a
weeklong trip up the Maine coast, across the Canadian Maritimes, back
across northern Maine, and then through Quebec and eastern Ontario.
(And to the nice folks at WERU who e-mailed us a few weeks back, we DO
want to stop by, but we've misplaced your e-mail. Please contact us
again!)

Look for a regular NERW in one week, followed by daily trip updates
beginning Friday, June 19.